Hamas Says Israeli Proposal Fails to Meet Palestinian Demands but is Under Review

PALESTINA-ISRAEL - CAIRO, April 9 (Reuters) - Hamas said on Tuesday that an Israeli proposal on a ceasefire in their war in Gaza met none of the demands of Palestinian militant factions, but it would study the offer further and deliver its response to mediators.

The proposal was delivered to the Palestinian Islamist movement by Egyptian and Qatari mediators at talks in Cairo that aim to find a way out of the devastating war in the Gaza Strip, now in its seventh month.

Israeli forces meanwhile stepped up bombardments on Deir Al-Balah and Rafah in central and southern Gaza respectively on Tuesday, two areas they have not so far invaded, residents said.

The talks in Cairo, also attended by the director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency William Burns, have so far failed reach a breakthrough towards pausing the war.

In a statement, Hamas said a new Israeli ceasefire proposal fell short of its demands.

"The movement (Hamas) is interested in reaching an agreement that puts an end to the aggression on our people. Despite that, the Israeli position remains intransigent and it didn't meet any of the demands of our people and our resistance," Hamas said.

However, it said it would review the proposal further and go back to the mediators with its response.

Hamas wants any agreement to secure an end to the Israeli military offensive, a withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, and to allow displaced people to return to their homes across the small, densely populated enclave.

Israel wants to secure the release of hostages seized by Hamas in the Oct. 7 cross-border rampage that triggered the conflict and to neutralise Hamas - which has ruled Gaza since 2007 - as a threat.

It has said it is keen to reach a prisoners-for-hostages deal by which it would free a number of Palestinians jailed in its prisons in return for the hostages in Gaza, but it was not ready to end its military campaign.

RAFAH INVASION

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday a date had been set for a ground assault on Rafah, a city on Gaza's southern border with Egypt which it says is the last stronghold of Hamas combat forces in the territory.

Rafah is also the last refuge for over one million Palestinian civilians displaced by relentless Israeli bombardments that have flattened their home neighbourhoods further north in Gaza.

They are crammed into Rafah in desperate conditions, short of food, water and shelter, and foreign governments and organisations have urged Israel not to storm the city for fear of a bloodbath.

Netanyahu said Israel's aims were to release the hostages and to secure victory over Hamas. He did not specify a date for any assault on Rafah.

Of the 253 people Hamas seized on Oct. 7, 133 hostages remain captive. Negotiators have spoken of around 40 going free in the first stage of a prospective deal.

Hamas fighters killed 1,200 people in southern Israel in the lightning Oct. 7 attack, according to Israeli tallies.

Some 33,360 Palestinians have been killed in six months of conflict, Gaza's health ministry said in an update on Tuesday. Most of the enclave's 2.3 million people are homeless and many at risk of famine.

Israel says aid is now moving into Gaza more quickly after international pressure to increase access, but the amount is disputed and the United Nations says it is still much less than the bare minimum to meet humanitarian needs in the enclave.

Palestinian emergency teams supported by international organisations scoured the rubble of Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City and the shattered city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza after Israeli forces withdrew following months of fighting.

So far the teams have recovered 409 bodies of Palestinians killed in the hospital and its surrounding neighbourhood and in Khan Younis, said Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Hamas-run Gaza Civil Emergency Service. Israel said Al Shifa was used as a militant base, something Hamas denies.

Basal called for international assistance in the form of excavation equipment and vehicles. He said rescue workers were responding to calls by families who reported their relatives missing and could be trapped under the rubble.

ISRAEL KEEPS UP MILITARY PRESSURE

On the battlefront, an Israeli airstrike on a municipality building in the Al-Maghazi camp in central Gaza Strip killed the head of its council, Hatem Al-Ghamri, and four other civilians, the Hamas-run government media office and medics said.

The Israeli military said in a statement it eliminated Ghamri, who it described as a military operative in Hamas' Maghazi Battalion involved in rocket launches against Israel.

An Israeli airstrike on a house in Deir Al-Balah killed one Palestinian and wounded 20 others, Hamas media said.

In Rafah, a missile fired from a drone killed one man and wounded several others, they said.

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

(Reporting by Nidal Al Mughrabi; witing by Yomna Ehab and Nidal al-Mughrabi; editing by Angus MacSwan, Ros Russell and Mark Heinrich)

Editor: Hasbi Maulana